Zagreb - Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković said on Friday that before the parliament goes into recess it will discuss the SDP's no confidence motion against Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and his government, which that opposition party put forward after the arrest of former Health Minister Vili Beroš.
The motion will be put to a vote after a parliamentary debate, Jandroković said, stressing that he was certain the motion would be rejected.
The session of the parliament's committee on healthcare and social policy, at which the government's proposal to vote confidence in Dr Irena Hrstić as the new Health Minister will be discussed, is set for 26 November.
"I expect the Committee to give a positive opinion on the new minister. That will not be discussed at the plenary, we will just have a vote, and it is scheduled for 6 December, so I expect that then we will vote in the new health minister," Jandroković said.
He said the parliamentary majority has seven and the Opposition six representatives on the committee.
"Considering that all members of the ruling coalition have said that they will support the minister, I expect everything to go well," he said.
The Office of the State Attorney-General (DORH) is investigating the leaking of information from the investigation of the European Public Prosecutor's Office (EPPO) in the Beroš case, which has activated new provisions of the Penal Code (so-called Lex AP), and Jandroković expects the competent authorities to establish what had happened.
"That is not within the government's or the parliament's remit but within the remit of the judicial bodies," he said.
Asked about public interest in the case, Jandroković said that Attorney General Ivan Turudić had said that it was definitely not a matter of public interest to disclose to suspects that they were under investigation or to make public what they were charged with.
"One should definitely take care of public interest, but anyone who has broken the law will certainly be discovered in the course of proceedings and the public will learn what they have done. At this stage it's difficult to discuss public interest if it jeopardises the very investigation," Jandroković said.